Television

July 10, 2012

Jefferson City, MO - In a series of discussions with VIN News, a Muslim Democrat running for Secretary of State of the state of Missouri retracted his position in regard to his 9-11 conspiracy theory and has apologized for stating that no Jews were killed at the World Trade Center on 9-11.

According to a report posted earlier today by VIN News, in the Washington Free Beacon , MD Alam, a Democratic Party caucus chairman vying to become Missouri’s next secretary of state “has speculated about Jewish involvement in the September 11th terrorist attacks and participated in an event with a Muslim cleric who has accused Israel of terrorism and alleged that the U.S. invented the HIV disease.

“Why was 9/11 was a official holiday for all Jewish people worked in the WTC?” Alam asked in an Internet discussion titled, “Was 9/11 a conspiracy??” He continued, “My question was, ‘What’s the reason not a single Jew was killed on that day,’” Alam said, maintaining that his inquiries are based on facts, rather than a bias against Jewish people. “Was there a single Jew killed on that day?”

Alam went on to tout the 9/11 Truther film Loose Change 9/11, and challenged readers to “tell me how many of the Jewish people died on the 9/11 tragedy?”

Asked in an interview Monday about his provocative views, Alam stood by his controversial writings, admitting that he has been “waiting to discuss it with somebody.”

When Rabbi Yair Hoffman reporting for VIN News contacted Mr. Alam, he initially did confirm that indeed, that was his position.

Mr. Alam was then asked by the reporter, “I personally know people that were killed on that tragic day, and can send you information about them. What is your position? Are you saying that these people went into hiding or that his children, his father, and his brother are all lying and, in fact, he is still alive?”

However, after being emailed and seeing evidence that, in fact, Jews were killed in this national tragedy, Mr. Alam offered his apologies and explained that he had been convinced by the material he had read on the internet regarding the issue.

Alam was then put in touch with other people who personally knew other Jewish 9-11 victims.

December 18, 2011

The debate over the Lowe's decision to pull TV advertising last week from a reality show about Muslim Americans in Dearborn spilled out into a protest and counter-protest near one of the company's stores in Allen Park on Saturday.

About 100 people of various faiths gathered at the Allen-Born Shopping Center on Outer Drive to chastise the hardware giant for what they described as caving to the demands of a right-wing Christian group who said TLC's "All-American Muslim" does not include depictions of beliefs that appear to promote an anti-American agenda.

The Florida Family Association's website on Saturday had the following statement, "The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish." The FFA also campaigns against companies that advertise during shows that portray gay and lesbian people, and against pornography.

Baptist minister Charles Williams II of the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit said such teachings are not Christian.

"They do not represent Christianity," said Williams regarding the FFA, questioning why Lowe's and others haven't pulled their ads from shows depicting violence. "We are all God's children. We must stand against bigotry and hate."

A local rabbi extended his support to clergy at the protest and local Arab Americans, saying he and other Jews would have been at the protest had it not fallen during the Jewish Sabbath.

“I hope that they would likewise stand up and demonstrate should something outrageous like this take place against another religion,” Rabbi Jason Miller said in a statement.

July 07, 2011

In her television studio in El Segundo, Roseanne Barr is singing the Israeli national anthem — and it’s good.

“If I asked you to sing ‘Hatikvah,’ would you slug me?” I had hesitantly asked her, remembering her screeching mangling of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a baseball game in 1990.

Roseanne responded with a look of genuine shock. Of course she would sing it, she said, even though, she added, “I haven’t practiced it and I do forget a lot of the words.” But then she began crooning the Hebrew in a rich, vibrating alto, carefully pausing before the high notes, crescendoing to a heartfelt peak — before stopping midsong. “The rest is really hard,” she explained. “The only songs I can sing really good are the Hebrew songs of my childhood.”

Even so, Roseanne, at 58, comes off more like a Jewish wise woman than the sardonic “domestic goddess” who transformed her blue-collar feminist comedy into a hit sitcom, “Roseanne,” from 1988 to 1997. Now a grandmother of five, she’s wearing her salt-and-pepper hair long, stylish red glasses and little makeup. And even after leaving Los Angeles for a simpler life in Hawaii, she has continued mouthing off on her blog, RoseanneWorld.com, as well as in a 2011 memoir, “Roseannearchy: Dispatches From the Nut Farm,” which describes her Jewish journey amid rants about politics and her ex-husband, Tom Arnold (the book appears in paperback Oct. 11).

Roseanne’s adventures on a macadamia nut farm in Hawaii will be chronicled in her new reality series, “Roseanne’s Nuts,” premiering on Lifetime July 13. The show may touch on her plans to once again publicly sing the American national anthem, this time, she said, triumphantly.

Roseanne has been practicing her singing, which has also improved courtesy of the breathing techniques she’s learned since becoming one of the first celebrities to frequent the controversial Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles in the 1990s.

“So many people in Hollywood go, like, ‘You’re such a Jewy Jew,’ ” she said, laughing. “But I think it’s just fantastic to be a Jewish person. Jews are such a fantastic bunch — thinkers, creators, moralists — and the more people know that about us, the better.”

What, is Naomi Pfefferman freaking retarded? How much was she paid to write this nauseating puff piece, and how much did the Jewish Journal take to publish it?

How about, in order to become a better person, Roseanne stops self-promoting and bragging about herself and says "I'm so sorry for all the people I have hurt with my hateful rants. Please forgive me," consults a real rabbi for a tikkun neshamah (not one of those frauds from the Kabbalah Centre) and not make excuses like "I was drunk the whole time."

June 14, 2011

VIENNA — Austria's State TV is apologizing for broadcasting a 1930s Walt Disney cartoon that critics say reinforces anti-Semitic stereotypes of the era.

"The Three Little Pigs" depicts the Big Bad Wolf disguised as a Jewish beggar, complete with a long nose, beard and caftan, as he tries to gain entry to one of the pigs' homes. The Austria Press Agency says it was seen last week on one of the network's children's programs.

Program director Wolfgang Lorenz expressed his "great" regrets Tuesday that the cartoon was broadcast. He spoke of a slip-up that evaded the "strictest quality criteria," and said he would make sure that "such a mistake ... will not occur again."

May 18, 2011

North London's Hasidic Jewish community is an intensely private world, where marriage is an integral rite of passage, strict rules must be adhered to and faith is taken seriously. Film-maker Paddy Wivell spent three months finding out what goes on behind closed doors and how an outsider is received.

"Nobody can become a 10-minute Jew," warns Hasidic scholar and Stamford Hill resident Gaby Lock. "It's so vastly away from your way of life that you would have no understanding of it whatsoever."

In Lock's front room, he talks about just a few of the 613 Commandments that govern the lives of the 20,000 orthodox Hasidic Jews who live here. It's already enough to give you a headache.

Out on the streets, men with beards and ringlets wear black hats and coats and hurry to synagogue while women push buggies into kosher supermarkets wearing wigs to protect their modesty.

The Hasidim see a lot of modern technology as a potential danger, putting at risk the spirit of purity and holiness of the community and threatening the innocent minds of its children.

Television is known as "the Yetzer Hara Box" which roughly translated means the "evil temptation machine". Owning one can be likened to "having an open sewer in the lounge".

The change between Stamford Hill and even a just a mile down the road is like crossing a border into another country.

"[There are] laws concerning charity, laws concerning the salting of meat, rules concerning the eating of meals, laws about how to go the toilet," says Lock, plucking passages at random from just one of his volumes of the Code of Jewish Law.

Along with these rules, the desire for privacy and scepticism about the media makes it difficult to speak to anyone.

"Everyone is very secretive," says Lock's wife Tikwah, who has been married to him for 40 years.

"They're thinking about the children they have to marry off and what will harm their name. Blow it all. We just say what we like, especially my husband."

Lock smiles. He is rare in this community - someone happy to engage with outside media. In fact, he quite enjoys ruffling feathers.

He is considered something of a rebel but in the village-like atmosphere of Stamford Hill, even he doesn't want to be too conspicuous and won't be filmed outside the confines of his home.

A lot of the community is very open and engaging to speak to, but most are unwilling to appear on camera.

February 09, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (Politically Illustrated) – Snickers, a chocolate bar made by Mars, ran a commercial during the Super Bowl with a notable Jewish comedian, Richard Lewis, transforming into some non-Jewish worker. Is the commercial "Logging" anti-semitic?

“Snickers picks two JEWISH [Roseanne Barr is Jewish? Hello! She's a ferocious anti-Semite!--VB] comedians and says, eat a Snickers and you transform from Jew to gentile,” Jason Rantz, a self-proclaimed activist out of Seattle, told Politically Illustrated. “What’s wrong with being a Jew?”

Mr. Rantz has started an online Facebook group called “Snickers Hates Jews,” denouncing the Super Bowl advertisement.

The commercial shows a non-Jewish worker asking Richard Lewis to cut some lumber and eat a Snickers.

“I’m just not feeling the wood cutting thing today,” said Mr. Lewis. “What is the rush here? Is there a worldwide shortage of gazebos?”

The non-Jewish worker added, “Here Tony, eat a Snickers. You get a little whiny when you’re hungry.”

Mr. Lewis eats the Snickers bar and transforms into an ordinary logger.

February 08, 2011

BLANTYRE (AFP) – Malawian lawmakers will next week debate a law change to criminalise public farting, which a cabinet minister said had been encouraged by democracy.

"The government has a right to ensure public decency. We are entitled to introduce order in the country," justice and constitutional affairs minister George Chaponda told independent radio station Capital Radio.

"Would you like to see people farting in public anywhere?"

Since the country embraced multi-party politics 16 years ago people had felt free to fart anywhere, said Chaponda.

"It was not there during the time of dictatorship because people were afraid of the consequences. Now because of multipartism or freedom, people would like to fart anywhere, he said.

Chaponda, a key figure in President Bingu wa Mutharika's government, said that if Malawians cannot control their farting "they should go to the toilet instead of farting in public."

"Nature can be controlled... it becomes a nuisance if people fart anywhere."

A lawyer himself, Chaponda said that under the amended law farting will be considered a minor offence.

Chaponda's Democratic Progressive Party will bank on its majority to pass the amendment to a law which was first introduced in 1929.

The amendment, which will make farting in public an offence, is not yet public and it will be presented to parliament for debate as part of a review by the state-sponsored Law Commission of the country's penal code.

Nobody in Malawi has been arrested nor convicted for farting under the old law, as police did not enforce it.

The old law states: "Any person who voluntarily vitiates the atmosphere in any place so as to make it noxious to the health of persons in general dwelling or carrying on business in the neighbourhood or passing along a public way, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour."

February 07, 2011

The Eminem "Imported From Detroit" 2-minute spot was outstanding. The only thing that would have made it even better is if it were a Lincoln ad. Ford Motor Company said they were not advertising on the Super Bowl this year, but there were at least two Ford ads, neither of them particularly memorable.

It's clear that Chrysler's Super Bowl two-minute ad featuring Detroit went over well in these parts. And while Chrysler's ad technically was for its new 200 sedan, the spot undoubtedly was intended as much for the city as it was for the car. We're curious about how it fared beyond our city, region and state.

To the people who were watching in Florida, New York or anywhere other than Detroit and know Detroit by what they read and what makes CNN, to Michigan expats who follow Michigan sports but don't see a life for themselves here: What did you think of the Chrysler ad? Did you get goosebumps?

By late Sunday evening, at least one person outside of Detroit said the ad made an impression.

"To me, it wasn't even a commercial for a car or a car company, it was for an entire city," Grant Pace, executive creative director at Boston-based advertising firm Conover Tuttle Pace, told the Boston Herald. "It was inspired, and it gave me chills."

January 24, 2011

This is the thing about TV, especially something wit the immediacy of a newscast – you’re always this close to a massive screwup. WLKY, a Louisville-based station, experienced an unfortunate brush with this reality while giving viewers a rundown of yesterday’s AFC Championship Game. Yes, the graphic says the Jets are from “Jew York.” Yes, we admit we were amused. No, we do not think the network was as amused as we were, and yes, we imagine some poor producer had an interesting discussion with one superior or another. Beware typos, people.

December 23, 2010

During live interview with Wiesel on Fox program, words at bottom of screen read "Holocaust winner" instead of "Holocaust survivor."

Fox News last week accidentally labeled Elie Wiesel a "Holocaust winner" on its chyron, the words appearing at the bottom of the TV program, during a live interview with the Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor.

The mishap occurred during an interview Wiesel gave on the Fox program, "Fox and Friends," and the chyron was immediately changed to "Nobel Prize Winner."

The mistake can be seen at the 35 second mark in clip.

Fox News has since removed the clip from their website, and there has been no response from Elie Wiesel.

August 26, 2010

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Three men arrested in Canada on terror-related charges -- one of whom was reported to have once auditioned for the "Canadian Idol" TV show -- were plotting bomb attacks and had connections to a group fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan, police said on Thursday.

Police arrested two of the men in Ottawa on Wednesday and a third in London, Ontario, following a nearly year-long investigation in the country's biggest anti-terror sweep since a plan by the "Toronto 18" conspirators to blow up Canadian landmarks was uncovered in 2006.

The lead investigator said police made the arrests this week because they believed an attack was imminent.

"This group posed a real and serious threat to the national capital region and Canada's national security," Serge Therriault, chief investigator for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told reporters.

"Our criminal investigation and arrests prevented the assembly of any bombs and the terrorist attack or attacks from being carried out."

Police said they found the suspects, all of whom are Canadian citizens, in possession of bomb-making instructions and more than 50 electronic circuit boards that were expected to be used to detonate improvised explosive devices.

The suspects were identified as Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh, 30, Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, both of Ottawa, and Khurram Syed Sher, of London, Ontario.

Police declined to comment on specific charges and said the investigation continued. The men are accused of conspiring with others in Canada, Iran, Afghanistan, Dubai and Pakistan.

The two Ottawa suspects made a brief court appearance on Thursday, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The Toronto Star newspaper reported that Sher auditioned for the Canadian version of the "American Idol" reality show in 2008.

In a YouTube video of the episode, a man tells the judges that he arrived in Canada in 2005 from his native Pakistan before he performs a stilted rendition of the Avril Lavigne tune "Complicated" while dancing and "moon-walking". The panel rejects him.

July 21, 2010

McLEAN, Va. – A man known for posting an online warning that the creators of "South Park" risked death by mocking the Prophet Muhammad was arrested Wednesday and charged with providing material support to a Somali terror group linked to al-Qaida.

Zachary A. Chesser, 20, of Oakton, Va., told FBI agents that he twice tried to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab as a fighter. On the most recent attempt, earlier this month, Chesser brought his infant son with him as he tried to board a flight from New York to Uganda so he would look less suspicious, according to an FBI affidavit.

Chesser was barred from the July 10 flight and told by the Transportation Security Administration that he was on the no-fly list, according to the affidavit.

While Chesser told the FBI that he had intended on July 10 to join al-Shabab, he told them in a July 14 interview that he had changed his mind because of the July 11 bombing in Uganda that killed more than 75 people watching the World Cup, for which al-Shabab claimed responsibility.

But leading up to July 10, Chesser said he had corresponded with al-Shabab members and expected to undergo a six-week basic training and then serve as a "foreign fighter" with al-Shabab in Mogadishu. According to the affidavit, Chesser expected he would be asked to serve as a propagandist but that he had been willing to fight on the front lines.

The affidavit also states that Chesser corresponded with the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki last year. Al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen now living in Yemen who has recently been designated a terrorist by the U.S. government. Al-Awlaki is believed to have corresponded with several alleged terrorists, including Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in November at Fort Hood, Tex.

Chesser also told authorities that he used several online profiles to spread terrorist propaganda.

The affidavit makes only a brief mention of Chesser's warnings to the "South Park" creators, saying that Chesser told authorities his parents were no longer speaking to him because of death threats they received after Chesser posted his warnings.

In April, Chesser posted a warning on the revolutionmuslim.com website that Trey Parker and Matt Stone could face the same fate as a Dutch filmmaker who was killed after making a movie about a woman who rejected Muhammad's teachings. An episode of the show depicted Muhammad in a bear costume.

June 02, 2010

In a surreal segment broadcast by CNN, a reporter and an analyst pore over video filmed by the Israeli army, but completely ignore the shocking images playing before them which clearly showing troops being attacked by gangs of passengers. As the video shows a soldier descended upon, pummelled and thrown off the boats upper deck, the two speak in generalities about the benefits of using helicopters to board ships. The casual conversation continues as the video shows other soldiers being struck by metal objects. Later in the segment, the CNN journalist, either ignorant of the footage before him or intentionally trying to mislead viewers, states:

"Now the Israelis are saying of course that they were attacked, but the protesters are saying, well, that it was a bit of a one-sided fight.... How fair a fight is this, that the Israelis are saying that they were attacked, but it's far from certain what they were attacked with at the moment."

The guest concurs, saying that with all the video that's available, one can't determine who initiated the violence.

An online CNN article likewise claims, desceptively, that "The IDF released a video shot from above the ship that it said showed soldiers being attacked, though the distance from which it was shot precluded immediate confirmation."

May 21, 2010

(JTA) -- The "Jew Producer" character and other characters on Comedy Central's Web site "play into and encourage offensive anti-Semitic and anti-Israel stereotypes," the Anti-Defamation League complained.

The game in the "Drawn Together" section of the Web site, based on an animated series that previously ran on Comedy Central, features a character called Jew Producer, and a robot called “the Intelligent Smart Robot Animation Eraser Lady” (I.S.R.A.E.L.), which murders children and wreaks destruction.

In a letter sent earlier in the week to Comedy Central's Executive Vice President Tony Fox, Abraham Foxman, national director of ADL, said: "We agree with complaints that this video game and other video clips and trailers featuring the “Jew Producer” character play into and encourage offensive anti-Semitic and anti-Israel stereotypes. While that may not have been the intent, the fact that your site caters to and potentially influences such a wide audience, including children and young adults, is especially troubling to us."

The section should also include clear labeling, or be placed behind an age-verification wall, and mature-content warnings should be consistently provided, the letter said.

"Given these concerns, we believe that the appropriate response would be to immediately remove these videos and the game from your site or -- at the very least -- to put the clips from the show behind a wall so that young children will no longer have access to them," the letter concluded.

April 26, 2010

RevolutionMuslim death-threatener in an episode we would like to see on "South Park"

The Seattle artist whose anti-censorship cartoon has helped spawn "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" says she wants no part of the May 20 event, which is gaining momentum online

"I made a cartoon that went viral but [this campaign] isn't really my thing," cartoonist Molly Norris tells Comic Riffs, characterizing her cartoon as merely a personal response to Comedy Central's censorship of a "South Park" episode last week. "Other folks have taken it over" -- an appropriation she says she is distancing herself from.

Postings on the Islamic website RevolutionMuslim.com led to Comedy Central's editing last week of a "South Park" speech about fear and intimidation, the show's creators have said. That network censorship has spawned another cartoon event: Everybody Draw Muhammad Day -- a campaign that might not be so easily quieted.

A posterlike cartoon titled "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" has been posted on the blogs of such commentators as Dan Savage to Andrew Sullivan. Savage tells Comic Riffs he published the cartoon on his blog late last week after it was e-mailed to him.

The growing campaign now includes a Facebook page titled Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. On Saturday night, the page had fewer than 1,500 "confirmed guests"; as of Monday morning (ET), the page was nearing 6,000 signed-up guests.

The creator of the page, Jon Wellington, tells Comic Riffs: "I created a Facebook event because that's an easy way to remind myself of upcoming events, and I thought it might serve that purpose for others too."